1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing control apparatus, a printing control method, and a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image output apparatus such as a digital copying machine, a laser beam printer (LBP), and a facsimile machine is connected to a network, and a document or image data is transmitted to the image output apparatus from a personal computer connected to the network and printed thereby. When the image output apparatus is not operated through an operation panel in a predetermined time period, the image output apparatus can be set to shift the image output apparatus from a standby state to a sleep state (power saving mode). The sleep state is referred to as a state in which the supply of electric power to a fixing device requiring a large electric power is interrupted to reduce power consumption of the entire apparatus.
In a conventional image output system, however, conditions of shift to the power saving mode depend on each apparatus, so that it has been difficult to generally control the power consumption of the image output apparatus connected to one unit of a network. For example, one printer connected to many personal computers operates by receiving a print command from one personal computer, finishes printing, and shifts again to the sleep state. Immediately after that, if the one printer receives a print command from another personal computer, the one printer wastes electric power due to a standby state between two print jobs.
If the print output is not urgently needed and the printer is in a sleep state when a print command is received, the print output is suspended by setting the time limit for printing out. Then the printer waits to shift to the standby state by other operations (such as, for example, print output in which time limit is not set or copy operation on the operation pane). After that, the suspended print output is resumed, thus the image output apparatus is controlled (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-220742, for example).
In the conventional technique a status management is performed on a image output apparatus basis, however, a total status management for printers in a case where a plurality of the image output apparatus is connected to the network is not taken into consideration. This causes a problem that the reduction of power consumption is insufficient, for example.
For example, if a plurality of image output apparatus with different characteristics and functions is connected to the network, a user selects one function and one image output apparatus if needed and performs printing, so that a process for saving electric power is executed only if the selected image output apparatus shifts to the standby state.
Therefore, if an image output apparatus satisfying a function selected by a user, although the user does not select the apparatus, shifts to the standby state, an output process is not executed, so that the reduction of power consumption as an entire network is insufficient.